Research Highlights

05/07/2013

Using over 30 years of observations from drogued, satellite-tracked surface drifting buoys, Lumpkin and Johnson (2013) developed a methodology to map seasonally-varying surface currents at 1/2 degree resolution. Results from this study can be used to better understand how the ocean transports properties like heat, salt, and passive tracers, and serves as a reference to study changes in ocean currents over time. One key result from this study is the global distribution of mean, seasonal and eddy kinetic energy, which totals 4.6x1017J in the upper 30 m of the ocean and reveals the presence of three large eddy "deserts", one in the Atlantic Ocean and the other two in the Pacific. Full story>>

09/01/2012

The record-breaking U.S. tornado outbreaks in the spring of 2011 prompt the need to identify
long-term climate signals that could potentially provide seasonal predictability for U.S. tornado outbreaks.
A new research led by scientists in the Physical Oceanography Division of NOAA-AOML used both observations
and model experiments to show that a positive phase Trans-Ni&ntildeo may be one such climate signal. Full story>>

09/01/2012

A news article that appeared in The New York Times on August 27 shows the ocean conditions in the Gulf of Mexico during hurricanes Katrina
(August 2005) and Isaac (August 2012). The ocean conditions are depicted by the upper ocean heat content derived from satellite
altimetry using a methodology developed at NOAA/AOML. The upper ocean heat content had larger values during Katrina mainly due to an
anticyclonic warm ring and an extended Loop Current. These conditions, not found during the passage of Hurricane Isaac, partly contributed
to the intensification of Katrina. Full story>>

09/01/2011

A new study led by researchers from University of Miami, NOAA-AOML,
IFM-GEOMAR, and NCAR explores why the Atlantic Ocean has warmed
substantially more than any other ocean basin since the 1950s. The
research article published in the Geophysical Research letters evidences
that the observed large warming of the Atlantic Ocean since the 1950s is
largely induced by an increase in the inter-ocean heat transport from
the Indian Ocean via the Agulhas leakage. The study points to an
important role played by the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation
(AMOC) in the South Atlantic in enhancing the secular warming of
the Atlantic Ocean. Full story>>